The most [popular posts](http://del.icio.us/ptsefton/ptsefton+trek520)
ever here are to do with my Trek 520 touring bike (oops
– mentioned it again, more bemused
visitors from Google).
I just bought the 520 a new present. It's a very bright, beautifully
engineered tiny little light that cost in the region of \$200
Australian. Strangely enough I recently bought eight taillights on sale
at K-Mart for \$2 each
– a
lifetime's supply! (Bought two the week before when they were \$4, too)
Given that we have 10.5 bikes that's nearly enough for every one of
them. I actually gave one away last week to a colleague who was about to
ride off from the Y-block bike rack sans-lights then realised that I
have just given him \$10 worth of rechargeables as well and I had to ask
him to return them when they turn flat. Maybe I shouldn't put those
things in those lights anyway?
Anyway, here's a kind of rambling story about bicycle lighting spanning
from the extreme budget low end to the high end. Actually, \$200 is not
really high-end, particularly for the off-road crowd. This is not one of
your useful reviews because I'm comparing cheap and improvised lighting
with something really expensive.
Back in the day I used to use my Petzl Zoom head-torch as a headlight,
wrapping the strap around the handlebars. I've still got that light, but
in the era of LED lights I don't bother with it any more and I couldn't
find it for this essay. Here's the modern version though. (Source
<http://www.rei.com/product/695303>)
![graphics1](/blog/2007/06/04/dinotte/1.jpg)
More recently, I have used an Energizer brand LED headlamp, circa \$30,
in a similar way. This is the second one, the first one went a bit dodgy
but I lost it before I could test the lifetime warranty.
![graphics2](/blog/2007/06/04/dinotte/2.jpg)
This light is cute 'cos it has both white and red modes. so I leave it
in my pannier as a fill-in, if one of the kids has lost or destroyed or
flattened one of their lights when I pick them up from after school care
I can lend it to them, and because it has an elastic headband it's easy
to improvise a mounting system. It's also great at music festivals,
looped through your belt, for reading the program in a dark tent.
More recently still I decided that since the Trek 520 goes a fair bit
faster than my old mountain bike and I ride on unlit roads and paths for
part of my commute I should get a proper bike light. Bought a cheap
(again, \$30) headlight with 5 LEDs. It's a bloody awful thing. throws a
feeble, spotty beam and it has a stupid plastic mounting clip. These are
all over the place with various branding. Stay away. Here it is:
![graphics3](/blog/2007/06/04/dinotte/3.jpg)
Meanwhile, the kids have been bike commuting for the past 3-and-a-half
years, and sometimes now they have to ride home from after school care
in the dark in winter. Initially I bought LED taillights, but they both
got lost and/or broken in a week or two. All lights now seem to come
with stupid plastic mounts that are really easy to break, and kids'
bikes take a beating and kids lose stuff. In the end I dug out a couple
of old flashing taillights from my bike-bits crate and stickytaped them
to the bikes. This is a good system, as the batteries last all winter,
so when the days get longer I remove them. The \$2 lights from K-Mart
are taped on there this winter. They were actually sold as brake lights
(!) and come with a dodgy little switch you are supposed to somehow
attach to the back brake but it turns out they work as taillights
anyway.
The idea with the children is to have lights for people to see us not us
to see stuff as we're riding on lit footpaths and through a lit park,
theoretically at moderate speed
–
and appropriate technology means something that glows a bit and doesn't
cost more than we can afford to lose.
Here's a \$2 light taped to a \$10 secondhand BMX, photographed at an
interesting angle.
![graphics4](/blog/2007/06/04/dinotte/4.jpg)
The headlights are old supermarket torches with dim incandescent bulbs
attached with hose-clamps. They stay on-bike all winter too, but I do
need to extract the AA cells and recharge from time to time. This is two
hose clamps (less than \$1 each) linked in to each other, one around the
torch and one around the handlebars.
![graphics5](/blog/2007/06/04/dinotte/5.jpg)
The long suffering Sandra (my partner) has a cute little four-AAA LED
torch which I got as a speaker's gift a the Open Publishing conference
in Sydney some time stuck on to her bike in the same way. This bike also
cost \$10, it's a red ladies Malvern Star 10 speed, but it was a bit
overpriced I think as when I got it home I had to pump up the tyres and
oil the chain.
![graphics6](/blog/2007/06/04/dinotte/6.jpg)
Which brings us to the [DiNotte Ultra
5](http://www.dinottelighting.com/DiNotte_Lighting_Ultra_5.htm). When I
decided to buy a decent light I rang a bike shop in Melbourne I've dealt
with before. Why did I ring them? Cos they didn't return my emails (they
don't have an official contact address, they have a bunch of random
email addresses you can try one by one, to go with their web store that
sorts everything by manufacturer, not by function). The bloke there was
very helpful. He said to get a decent light I would need to spend \$200,
and it would have to be one of the rechargeable halogen lights, and to
do my homework. If he'd known how to close I would have bought one over
the phone.
So I did my homework.
I thought I'd like something that takes rechargeable AA cells, so I'm
not locked in to some proprietary battery pack or charger system. And I
was really looking for something that didn't have stupid flimsy plastic
mount. Enter DiNotte. You can buy these things in OZ from a couple of
places, but it's way cheaper to get them from the manufacturer in the
USA, complete with four AA cells and a 'worldwide smart charger' you
can't plug in here. I filed that with my other battery chargers and I
thought of Rick Jelliffe and his[dullest most trainspotterish
blog](http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2007/05/power_plugs_and_lowhanging_fru.html).
This is a very beautiful design. A tiny aluminium light that you put on
with a rubber o-ring, and a miniscule battery-pack (there's a spare
battery holder) that velcros on to the headstem. I only got it today, it
arrived while I was at work, but I rode home and immediately took it out
shopping and detoured to a dark bike path on the way home. This thing
really works. With a short commute like mine and the spare batteries it
will be more than enough.
![graphics9](/blog/2007/06/04/dinotte/7.jpg)
I have seen some comparative reviews [online with
photos](http://www.u.arizona.edu/~sandiway/bike/lighting/), so I thought
I'd go out on the driveway and take some shots. Problem being (a) my
short attention span (b) the tripod is not what it used to be and is
missing some apparently important parts, like part of the legs and the
screws to lock things down and (c) this is stupid, but here are two
pictures comparing the DiNotte and the dodgy LED light whose name has
rubbed off. You really don't want to look straight into the DiNotte even
at 20m.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
![graphics7](/blog/2007/06/04/dinotte/8.jpg)
DiNotte Ultra 5, showing our wheelie bin and the contents of the garage where you can see a couple of bike reflectors. In real life you can actually see the driveway quite well too but not in the photo. You can tell by the well-lit climbing-rose that the light is aimed way too high.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion?
For low-speed trundling through the park, a little torch is all you need
to stay legal and give the pedestrians a bit of a chance to jump out of
the way, but for road or trail riding it's surprising how much lighting
costs; you can buy a pretty good bicycle for just twice the price of one
little headlight. But I'm figuring that this DiNotte is at least a 20
year light. (Oh, and decent tickets to Bob Dylan in Brisbane in August
cost almost as much). And the hose-clamp trick is really good, as is the
sticky-tape system.